Horse racing: Cecil under the weather

by LYDIA HISLOP, Evening Standard

Relentless rain has ruthlessly divided Britain's trainers into sinkers and swimmers since the new turf Flat season began. The gulf in fortunes is no better illustrated than those of former champion trainers John Dunlop and Henry Cecil.

Dunlop's horses almost need only to turn up to win, but Cecil's are running palpably below par.

Since Doncaster's curtain-raising meeting on 22 March, the former has saddled 17 winners from 45 runners - a spectacular strike rate of 36 per cent - whereas the latter languishes on 11 per cent with just two successes from 18 attempts.

This is no indication of professional ability - both are worthy of their place among the global elite - but it does expose subtle differences in their training methods.

Cecil, who relies predominately on grass gallops to get his string fit, has been placed at a massive disadvantage because Newmarket's trainers have been almost entirely denied access to the Jockey Club Estates' waterlogged turf.

But handlers for whom artificial surfaces play a greater role in their regimes, have proceeded largely without hindrance. Dunlop's string don't even set foot on turf until their seasonal debut.

He introduced an all-weather surface at his Arundel yard almost 30 years ago, soon after taking out his training licence in 1966.

It became an essential tool at Castle Stables when the number of horses in training advanced beyond his initial 40 or 50 to a tally that, in 2001, is the largest in Europe.

"Swapping to an artificial surface back then was a matter of necessity more than design and that is often the case," recalled Dunlop, who lauds multiple champion National Hunt trainer Martin Pipe as the revolutionary force in all-weather training.

"Grass gallops wouldn't have endured the numbers of horses required to train on them. At the time, woodchip was the only artificial surface available and not widely used. Ours were modelled on those of Vincent O'Brien at Ballydoyle.

"We used them right up until I had a polytrack built over the winter. There are many types now, but I went for this one because it has proven effective at places such as Newmarket."

Polytrack is the work of specialist Hungerford-based firm, Martin Collins Enterprises Ltd. The product has constantly evolved during the last 10 years and is a mix of several fibres, mixed with soft rubber, two different types of silica sand and a hot wax coating.

Work started on Dunlop's new facility on 15 December last year, cost well into six figures to install and was completed, despite the poor weather, in exactly two months. The track is a mile in length and climbs 250 feet from start to finish.

A 'Gallopmaster' machine maintains the surface to an even depth and can vary the speed at which it rides, depending on need.

"The polytrack was laid to the exact same proportions and contours as its wood-chip predecessor," said Dunlop.

"I still use a wood-chip track for my slow work but fast work, every Tuesday and Friday, is conducted in two lots on the polytrack.

"Wood chip has disadvantages in extreme conditions. When it's wet, there were one or two patches just impossible to drain satisfactorily. Then, during the hot summer months, it dried out from the bottom upwards, becoming a loose and false surface. It lacked consistency."

There are three polytracks in Newmarket, but Cecil prefers to use them only for steady work and relies on grass for faster exercise.

Like Dunlop, his annual start comes in the first week of February and the rate gradually builds as the turf season gets into gear.

"I like my horses to have a month or so on the grass before starting any serious work," said Cecil. "But I've literally only been able to use the turf once for cantering and once for galloping so far this year - and that was very slowly because of the heavy ground.

"I haven't been able to get the distance work into them that I would like. Consequently, I'm three weeks behind schedule."

The 58-year-old handler, who has held a licence since 1969, admits his method "isn't working at the moment" due to the weather - despite Rolly Polly's Group Three Fred Darling success last Saturday and Curtain Time's eye-catching maiden win eight days ago.

"I believe I've got the right calibre of material, but the horses I've run so far have got very tired at the end of their races," he said.

"I'm not being critical of all-weather gallops, but I only find them useful in their specific place in my training regime. I can't move my horses up to race fitness on them - I'm only marking time with less strong work.

"I know trainers such as John Dunlop swear by them - perhaps because he doesn't have to cope with the volume of horses on the public ones in Newmarket - but I find I have to clean up cartilage problems or get hairline fractures."

Dunlop disagrees. "I had this poly-track built because I thought it would actually be safer to work on and reduce the number of injuries during training," he said.

"The key to mine is the hill. The artificial gallops at Newmarket are perhaps a bit too flat and encourage horses to go too fast."

Cecil can't deny Dunlop's method is working. But there are more than seven months in which to catch up.